Man behind mentoring program has even bigger goals

Monday

May 26, 2014 at 4:10 PM

The accomplishment that brings the biggest smile to Travis Corpening's face these days isn't his own.

By Pressley BairdPressley.Baird@StarNewsOnline.com

The accomplishment that brings the biggest smile to Travis Corpening's face these days isn't his own.It's what the young men he mentors have achieved: graduating from Cape Fear Community College.Six of the students in CFCC's minority male mentoring program, which Corpening runs, received their associate's degrees from CFCC this spring. Now, they're moving on to training programs, jobs and college classes. Corpening is doing the same thing.He's a week into an online Ph.D. program in education management through Hampton University. It's a way to harness the broad skill set of a man who will do anything to pull the potential out of a student. "I've been pushing everybody so hard to do more and be more," he said. "I started to think, ‘I've got to walk the walk.'"His inspirations are students in the minority male mentoring program like Jonathan Herring, who graduated from CFCC with an associate's degree in heating and air-conditioning technology and already has a job at O'Brien Service Co. in Wilmington.Jonathan said he grew up with teachers who told him he'd never go to college.Through the minority male mentoring program, Corpening not only helped him get through school – he helped him succeed. That's a mantra for Corpening, who also gives motivational speeches at colleges and churches through his Shaper company."I get so tired of students telling me, "I passed (my classes)," Corpening said. "Me, everybody – we've got to teach them that passing is not good enough. It's about being excellent." Now, Corpening is trying to find more funding to expand the mentoring program. The extra money would enable him to hire an assistant and bring in more students. Corpening's office walls are already full of photos of program alumni smiling with diplomas and college acceptance letters. But he wants to add even more.